The Lost Village...

 Let me set the scene...

You are walking through the woods, in search of a bird. A little bush-whacking may be taking place. Going off trail, if you will (heh heh). Up ahead you see a clearing.  After having worked in the National Forest in California and having to keep an eye out for mobile meth labs and pot plantations, coming across an unexpected clearing honestly put me a little on edge. Seriously. Who knows what goes on in the forests of Nicaragua. Just sayin. 

 But then I saw all of these little adobe-esque buildings...

Something awesome?? Some ancient abandoned home site. Well maybe not ancient but historic? Eh? That would be cool. I mean, it's not even on the map which must mean SOMETHING. 

Turns out it is slightly less cool and certainly less historic. 

A village built for solely paintball....

Yeah, that's right. I said it. Paintball in the cloud forest. 

"Unfortunately" it didn't pan out and so the village and paintball-team-building dreams were abandoned. Sigh.... :-P

I'm ok with that. AND since it's not on the trail map, not too many wayward tourists find it, making it a swell hiding place when you need to avoid the crowds, or just people in general.

Wildlife and such

A selection of wildlife and plant matter... 

Project wise things are...well, let's say slow. I don't know if there is some freak weather system going on (again) or if it is always insanely windy here, but it has been, for lack of a better word, insanely windy. I would go with 15-20mph on the regular with stronger gusts. Doesn't mix well with mist-nets, which means not a lot of birds in the nets, and therefore fewer with transmitters. Wah wah. 

We did manage to catch one little fellow on the one day it was calm. Also, turned out to be the one day that the coffee plants were getting a little fertilizer fog. Made for an interesting morning, trying to get a transmitter on a bird and take the nets down before the fog machines descended. Yes, we were the crazy white chics dashing frantically around the coffee field to close nets. At that point we didn't really know what the plants were being fogged with either... It was border line apocalyptic, that's all. 

Other than that, there has been a lot of wandering around in the woods looking for birds and contemplating how we might lure them out of the canopy... As a result, we've seen a lot of other things too. 

Oh hey, bellbird way up in the tree. Not quite as awesome as the pictures I pilfered from the internet but I did actually see this guy.

Glasswing? I vote it should be called that at least. 

The hungry caterpillar strikes again...

The hungry tree strikes?

"Trail signs are delicious, nom nom nom"

Nicaragua: Take 2

Here's a run down of the happenings thus far in Nicaragua:

I arrived! Spent a couple days in Managua and then headed up the hill. That alone was a bit of an adventure. The taxi driver really didn't want to take us to the bus station, but we insisted and reluctantly he obliged. Finding the right bus was the next ordeal because everyone wanted us to get on their bus. The "ordinario" bus was about to pull out of the station and the drivers insisted they would get to Matagalpa (our intended destination) "muy rapido". We held out for the express bus though in order to avoid stopping every 10 ft for a person, vegetable or chicken. Express buses are usually glorified school buses where the bench seats have been replaced with nicer seats, however, somehow I ended up in the seat over the wheel-well. Translation -> zero leg room. It was awesome. When we reached Matagalpa, much to our surprise, the bus dropped us off on the side of the road, not at a bus station. At least we only had 4 huge bags, so we were totally incapacitated. I abandoned John (the boss man) with all the bags and went in search of a bathroom. Sometimes, you just gotta do what you gotta do. John found a taxi, which then got a flat and so they went off to fix it before coming to find me. I, in the mean time went back to the bus stop to find John...Eventually, we found each other and were on our way to Selva Negra.

The last time I was at Selva Negra was a good 6 or 7 years ago, so naturally I remember very little (the brain cells die so fast). Originally settled by some Germans way back in the day (like the 1890's-ish), it is kind of like driving up to little Germany in the jungle.

Within minutes of our arrival there were 3 things that make this time around already seem more promising:
1) Expresso machine
2) Extra Blankets (without having to steal them from other cabins)
3) Beer Truck delivering beer...on a weekly basis
(Also, it wasn't raining on arrival and we didn't get put in a hovel).

Seriously, what could go wrong? and if it does...there's a beer truck.

The stay at Selva Negra was short lived. We spent the night and then turned around, hiked out the entrance road, caught a bus to Jinotega and headed to El Jaguar (last year's study site). Apparently, there was a small gathering of Golden-winged Warbler folks so off we went for the weekend to talk about birds and such. 

Turns out, it is still cold there (and yes, if you must know, I stole an extra blanket from another cabin). They've built a new kitchen/dining room and installed a new wet mill for processing coffee. Both of which were pretty cool and neither of which I took a picture. Wah, wah...

We spent a couple days wandering around the old turf and looking for some of the birds that I harassed last year. Found one! 

Swinging Bridge at El Jaguar (construction had started last year)

We also went over to the pine-oak forest on Sunday morning to look for some different species and then went on the canopy tour/zip line. Fun! Alas, there is no photographic evidence.

Sunflowers!

Monday we headed back to Selva Negra with a ride into Jinotega from George, followed by a hunt for the right bus. Turns out, since last year 98% of the market moved into a newly constructed facility and the bus station moved with it. So, we wandered the streets for a while before discovering the bus station we wanted was practically where we had been dropped off. Geniuses we are! Really, we were just providing people with some entertainment by walking by them approximately 5 times. 

Once back at SN we commenced our search for Golden-wings. The first day of actual work was uber windy and rainy...a bad sign? I hope not. The next few days weren't as bad, the sun even came out and I had high hopes for taking shower, which we had been told was solar. So, when it was not even the slightest bit warm I was bummed (and cold). I guess you can't have a beer truck AND a hot shower...or can you? That's what tourists are for, because they will complain about not having hot water, and then someone will discover that the hot water heater is broken. Ha! I just figured we would just have cold showers.

Wishing well? or maybe just a well well

Selva Negra Church

from the back...

Sweet pathway

glass that has been stained

Should have brought my doves. They could have lived here! If only I'd known.

A walk in the woods...

This place is quite the operation. Coffee picking is wrapping up in the next couple days, but during the height of the season, they employ ~900 people. Sheesh! That's a lot of coffee. A bunch of the workers are seasonal but there are also a lot that live here year round and there is a whole village with a school and clinic on the property. And a baseball field...with natural lawnmowers. 

Alright, that's all I've got for now. Oh wait, there is also a pair of Black-and-White owls that hangs out outside the room, Three-wattled Bellbirds calling all the time and Long-tailed Manakins popping up here and there.  Did I take any of these pictures? Heck no. Props to the people that did. They are pretty darn swell.

NOW, that's all.